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Snowden Run 3D Press Release [ENG]

July 19, 2013, Houthalen (Limburg, Belgium)

Snowden Run 3D is a free satirical Temple Run/Subway Surfers clone for Android, iPhone and HTML5 based on the current events surrounding Mr. Edward Snowden. The game was authored by Michele Rocco Smeets (Mike “The Spike” Smith) originally intended as a Ludum Dare contest entry, with less than 30 hours of development time dedicated to it. It features three complete, infinite episodes; NSA Head Quarters, Hong Kong and Moscow Airport.

The player collects USB sticks and laptops containing sensitive information while being chased by Agent Jake, whose mission is to arrest whistle blower Edward Snowden.
If the player is caught, he ends up in Guantanamo Bay and the game ends. There is one powerup, a USSR hydrogen bomb which is dropped onto the map when “Uncle Putin” is called on a cellphone, effectively ridding it from obstacles. Due to the very limited development time dedicated to this game there are a lot of possible improvements, especially gameplay-wise that will be made in the future through the use of updates.

The game does not point a finger to either the US agencies and companies involved in the data-collection scandal nor Mr. Snowden, it attempts to remain neutral as far as a parody can be unbiased. There is absolutely no political motivation behind this game nor am I affiliated with any government agencies or Mr. Snowden.

BACKGROUND
Development began as a response to some poor Android “Snowden Game” exploits where it was obvious the author simply renamed the main character in their already-developed video-game as being Edward Snowden at the last minute in order to capitalize on the press attention gathering around Mr. Snowden at the time. After a quick search on the PlayStore and Google turned up nothing but (at the last minute) re-branded games and very simple flash-based titles, I decided to create a real, full-featured Snowden game from scratch utilizing the 3D Studio Max-based 3D Game Development platform MT Engine, which I had being developing for an new American startup’s debut Android/iPhone videogame. My initial idea was a New Super Mario Bros. -clone called “New Super Snowden’s Boss”, I later decided to build a Temple Run clone instead due to the popularity of the infinite runner genre and the availability of a project template I previously designed. I intended to enter the well-known Ludum Dare speed-coding contest, until I realized I could not enter due to the closed-source nature of the game development platform I was using. Instead, I decided to release the game for free as a real video game for mobile and desktop platforms. In order to be allowed to release it, I had to license my own development platform which I had being developing for MNA Games.

The app is completely free as will be all subsequent installments and is available right now on the Android Playstore. The iPhone version is ready but requires some time to be released since there are licensing issues. The Android version contains some ads in a humble effort to recuperate hosting and licensing costs and is not-for profit.